No federal aid coming for livestock producers: agriculture minister

No financial aid package is in the works for Canada’s livestock sector, Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay says — despite pleas from producer groups who warn plummeting prices are forcing producers out of business.

“I’m willing to look at anything through the government, but with anything like this, you’d have to work with the government here, and the provincial governments, if there was going to be a special package put in place,” MacAulay said in an interview with iPolitics Monday afternoon.

“But honestly, I am not looking at putting one in place at the moment,” he said, adding the federal government is “doing everything we can with the programs in place in order to help them.”

As a former farmer himself, MacAulay said it’s well understood the sector “is looking for aid.”

The Alberta government had asked the Trudeau government to consider supporting the province’s hog industry amid economic instability in North American commodity markets caused by an ongoing trade war.

A spokesperson for Alberta Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier confirmed to iPolitics the province is in discussions with its federal counterpart about recent declines in pork prices.

The request from Alberta came as livestock markets fluctuate and American hog producers are getting more financial support; the Trump administration continues to wage a global trade war that includes imposing tariffs on goods exported from that country’s largest pork markets: China and Mexico.

The trade war has triggered retaliatory tariffs on American pork from China and Mexico in response to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum products and, in China’s case, on other goods. Mexico has levied a 20 per cent tariff, and China has imposed a 62 per cent tariff on American pork alone.

Canadian livestock prices are based on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, North America’s main commodity market, which has seen notable price declines, thanks to the ongoing trade uncertainty. The two countries have highly integrated livestock supply chains, resulting in uncertainty being felt on both sides of the border.

The situation, Ontario’s livestock industry warned Friday, is a “growing crisis” in which producers could suffer catastrophic losses.

“Over the past six weeks, Ontario pork farmers alone have suffered weekly losses in the millions of dollars. The numbers for Ontario’s beef farmers are equally staggering and Ontario’s veal farmers are not far behind,” the province’s beef, veal and pork industries said in a joint release.

“Simple math tells you that Ontario’s livestock farmers will be hard-pressed to continue to supply locally grown food to Ontarians, when they are losing over $40 per hog and more than $300 per head of cattle sold,” wrote the Ontario Beef, Ontario Pork and Veal Farmers of Ontario.

“Very soon, Ontario livestock farmers will be forced to decide whether they are willing to hold out for an end to these political storms, or if they will need to walk away from the family farm for good.”

Ontario is one of Canada’s largest pork-producing provinces, with high levels of production also found in Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Ontario isn’t the only province sounding the alarm. Last week, Alberta Pork warned that some producers have halted production temporarily or quit the industry altogether.

“All parties agree that something must be done, and today, we are making clear our desire for what that something is,” the Sept. 14 release reads, noting the request comes after several meetings with Carlier and industry stakeholders.

Alberta Pork wants Canadian producers to receive a per-hog per diem of $10.50 for all inventory held as of August 1 of this year – similar to what has been offered by the American administration to their own domestic industry.

The industry’s national organization, the Canadian Pork Council, has written to MacAulay requesting assistance.

In recent months, the federal agriculture minister had shied away from an additional support program for agricultural sectors affected by the U.S. uncertainty.

In July, follow a meeting in Vancouver with his provincial counterparts, the federal agriculture minister insisted Canada’s current suite of business risk management programs, designed to mitigate risk, is available to help the industry weather potential economic storms.